Joe Bonamassa
A great solo is one that's so frail that it actually teeters on the edge of falling apart, but doesn't.
One of these days, when I get tired of it all, I'll keep six guitars and the amps I'm using, and I'll have a big old auction for charity.
Sometimes you have to blame yourself before you can blame others.
Greece was a muse. It inspired creativity in magical ways that I can't even begin to understand or explain.
I've really gotten over pedals. I can't keep up with this craze of boutique pedals that make you sound like everything but your guitar. I can't get my head around it.
I am the poster boy for brick-by-brick foundation building. Play a club. Put on a good show for 35 people. Come back. Build your market. Have people talk about you.
Nothing I'm doing musically is revolutionary in any way, shape, or form.
I'm not one of those people that has to share personal experiences. That's not really the kind of writer I am. I'm a very private person to begin with.
I like to be in the room with players that are better than me. That's always a good place to be.
When you've done so many records in 20 years like I have, you're going to have ebbs and flows and go through peaks and valleys.
Being a niche kind of artist, you're not going to make a lot of friends in the traditional music biz.
My first memory of guitar was seeing my father play one.
My first proper 'Here's your guitar, Joseph' was a 1981 Chiquita, one of those Erlewine travel guitars. And it was good for a four-year-old because it was small.
At the end of the day, I think having some life experience is helpful to play any kind of music.
There's a certain thing when you start getting into your late thirties or early forties where you stop caring. Not to the extent where you stop caring about the music, you just stop caring about what anyone thinks of you, and you just kind of let it go - let the chips fall where they may.
British blues was my favorite music, and it still is.
I'm actually much more of a rock player than many people think.
A guitar is so tactile, and when you're playing bends - and bending notes is a big part of my style - there are so many notes within the note you're bending from and the note you're bending up to.
Doing the acoustic at Carnegie is basically advised because electric music tends to get, let's just say, acoustically unsound.
I'm probably a more intentional acoustic player than I am an electric player because of lack of influences. I just play acoustic to see what happens.
I play acoustic when I need to play acoustic, and I say I'm probably a better acoustic player than I am electric.
If I'm soloing, I usually try to start with a theme, which will often stem from the blues.
I don't really do scales... I mean, I play parts of them, but then I bail and start playing parts of other things. The term 'scale' feels very scripted to me because I'm an improv player.
I don't have any legato skills; I could never figure out how to roll the notes off.
I'm not sure when I first heard about Beth Hart. I do remember seeing her on various TV shows. I think I'd seen her on 'Conan O'Brien' or whatever. And it seemed that whenever we'd tour Europe, our paths would cross.
I'm always looking for something new to do.
I feel like I always learn from somebody who can do something better than I can.
It's not enough to play a song: you have to inhabit it.
The fact that I tour religiously in the spring, religiously in the fall, and do 125 shows - you can set your watch to that. And you could have set your watch to that in 2000 or 1999, and you can set your watch to it in 2012.
I've never been known as a riff kind of artist.
It's good to see young kids getting into the blues.
When I write for an album, I'll always have about 30 different types of instrument around me. I set them up in a small room with my computer running GarageBand, which is always set to record.
If you have a good riff with a vocal as well, then it becomes a devastating song. That's why people love riff-rock: it's the ultimate air guitar music.
When you're 12 and, you know, slightly overweight and - for lack of a better word - white, and you're playing blues, you get a lot of press.
The blues, the way it's interpreted, is always a product of your environment, and so it's almost like food. You know, it's like you use the ingredients, and you use your life experiences that you have.
I work well under pressure.
It doesn't matter if people take the music for free, because you can't illegally download a ticket to a concert.
I think great music sells records, and I also think, do you want to be a reality star, or someone that actually has credibility? Because you can't have both.
I dislike all those cookie-cutter Nashville songs. You know the ones: about tight jeans and pick-up trucks.
Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck made me an Anglophile. I listened to English and Irish artists as a kid, and they were way louder, heavier, and faster than the traditional blues that I was listening to.
I love to collect guitars made in the 1950s. I like preserving and playing them.
You often see lifestyle over substance in L.A. Some rock stars dress up like they're going to play a gig when they're just going to the 7-Eleven store on a Tuesday night.
To sell out London's Hammersmith Apollo is amazing. Selling it out for two nights? Even better.
At the end of the day, you really want to make sure that organic music, made by human beings, at least has a voice.
When you play a gig in Poland or Australia, or you play a gig in Toledo, they all clap at the same parts of the show. They're clapping for the solos in the exact same way.
There's great cars, and then there's Aston Martins. Same thing for the 1959 Les Paul - it's an authentic piece of art that can never truly be replicated, and its mysteries are special.
The thing people forget about Kevin Shirley a lot of the time is that he's not only a great producer, he's also a world-class engineer. He really knows how to get a sound.
I learned that if I put my mind to something vocally, I can pull it off. You just have to get your head-space right.
I never had this ego where I must write everything. I'm not Bob Dylan.